By Brad Durick

The feeling of fall is setting in while we’ve been fishing for cats on the Red River of the North

The water temperature on the flow has dropped down to around 70 degrees and all the fronts throughout the past week have pushed the catfish to an off-current pattern. This means the slower side of holes, back of inside bends, and places the main current pulls away from the spot are the spaces that are holding them right now.

It has been fun to fish these past seven days, because it has been a change from the “down the middle” pattern of the past two months. Even with a change in location that normally means longer sits, but it seems that the wait times have gone back to a normal 20-30 minutes for now. Bigger catfish are still taking a little longer to decide to bite but for now it is setting up to be a fun late summer bite.

As nights get longer and cooler, I suspect the catfish will stay on or close to this pattern from here on out

This week’s order is frog, frog (yes I wrote that twice to stress its importance), and sucker for bait choices.

Brad Durick is a Dakota Edge Outdoors contributing writer and a licensed ND fishing guide specializing in trophy channel catfish on the Red River in and around Grand Forks.

Featured Photo: The Outer Limits.  Bigger catfish are being found in spaces associated with fall fishing on the Red River.  Target slower areas around holes and the backs of inside bends and give them a bit longer to bite. DEO Photo by Brad Durick.